What Parents Never Like To Hear

Last night we heard one of those phrases that totally ruins a night:  "I just threw up in my bed."  It's bad enough when they wake you to tell you they threw up at all, but to mention that it was in bed... I just feel like lying there and hoping it's a bad dream or that if I feign sleep the child will go away and clean the mess without me, or maybe Mom will take pity on me and take one for the team (OK, we always take care of these as a team).  This was one of those where the smell was totally overpowering.  Uggh.  Enough detail.

I'm sure any parent reading this can relate, and if not, don't worry, it will happen.  This time we experienced a new dimension of concern.  It was a our third youngest daughter that was sick.  She would now have to stay home from school.  Stay home where we are keeping J, whose white blood cells are starting to become so scarce we can name them individually.  We know that GI bugs are very contagious and that it will be somewhat of a miracle for the rest of the family to avoid it, especially J.  We know that we already had a tricky morning with doctors' visits for our oldest daughter.  We also needed to get J to the hospital where the lab is to get blood drawn today.  Our baby started to spit up more than she typically does.  Is that another sick child or are we now imagining sick children in the fatigue that accompanies middle of the night illness?  Then I'm not doing so well, although that may be a hidden blessing.  I can just call in sick to work and keep all the unhealthy children with me while Mom runs the oldest to her appointments and then takes J to the hospital.  The third youngest is banished to her room.  J is encouraged to stay as far away from her as possible and hang out in the basement.  I end up walking up and down the stairs about a hundred times trying to take care of all the children at home.

The day thankfully worked out much better than the night and nobody else seems to be sick.  J's blood counts are definitely on the downward slope, but not as low as I feared he would be.  He still has some white blood cells to help fight off infection.  His doctor thinks he'll reach the low point (nadir) around Wednesday.  Then we can be on the up and up.